obit: Hans Bethe

Hans Bethe, one of the biggest names in theoretical physics died this week at 98. If you havent heard about him or know his story, try reading it up. I admired him along with Robert Oppenheimer for steadfastly standing up against Edward Teller and his plan for developing the hydrogen bomb--the most senseless weapon of all time.
Hans was a german emigre who was part of the Manhattan project. After the war he worked on how to enable warheads to re-enter the atmosphere without detonating its payload (for the interested--this is called ablation theory and has found interesting applcations in many areas). Hans staked his career to stand up against using the a-bomb on civilians (he was part of a team of scientists who wanted a demonstration over the skies of tokyo instead of on civilian population). Later he stood up against the blind development of thousands of warheads and also against the crazy ass loons in the Reagen administration who wanted star wars. He also was a voice advocating moving away from oil to nuclear energy as a source of energy. Other than all this, he was a consummate scientist and research advisor, presenting his last major paper at the age of 91.
Hope there are more like him, especially now, when morality is being decided by religious nuts instead of humanists and scientists.